Transportation, Education Top McDonnell's 2013 Agenda

Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell has already started rolling out initiatives for his final General Assembly session. 

Two core responsibilities still need reforms, McDonnell says. One is education. Schools have failed, McDonnell says, if students are not college- or career-ready by graduation.

"We have a series of reforms starting with teacher professionalism and excellence in compensation and discipline," the governor says. "And we'll have some more ideas on choice and school accountability, and innovation in technology in the classroom." 

McDonnell's second priority is transportation. While a record $14 billion in projects are underway, maintenance is consuming construction funds.

"So we're looking at a creative way of providing new resources for transportation, and reforming continuing to reform VDOT to make it more accountable and effective so that we can get the maintenance deficit under control, provide more resources to maintain and grow our roads and rail and transit," McDonnell says.

He's already proposed diverting a small portion of the sales tax to transportation and there is some speculation that McDonnell will also propose adjusting the gas tax for inflation.